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PORTLAND, Maine \u2014<\/strong><\/p>\nThe Maine Medical Center nurse who was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for a week has released a statement following her release from ICE custody.<\/p>\n
Debora Kapisha is back in the state of Maine and has reunited with her family, the Maine State Nurses Association announced Friday during a news conference. <\/p>\n
A fellow union member read the following statement from Kapisha on her behalf: “Thank you all for your love and support. I am so thankful to be home and can’t wait to return to my co-workers and patients.”<\/p>\n
Kapisha, a registered nurse from Zambia, was detained by ICE agents on July 30 while she was traveling through Boston Logan International Airport, according to the Maine State Nurses Association.<\/p>\n
The Maine State Nurses Association said Kapisha works as a medical-surgical nurse at MaineHealth Maine Medical Center in Portland. The union also said Kapisha is legally authorized to live and work in the United States while her asylum case is pending. According to an email obtained by Maine’s Total Coverage, MaineHealth said Kapisha was authorized to work in the United States until 2030.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security told Maine’s Total Coverage, however, that “any pending application does not confer legal status.”<\/p>\n
\u201cKapisha entered our country on May 14, 2024, on a visa that was set to expire on November 13, 2024. She failed to depart before this date in violation of our nation\u2019s immigration laws. She will remain in ICE custody pending the outcome of her removal proceedings. She will receive full due process,” the DHS spokesperson said in a statement shared with Maine’s Total Coverage on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-Maine, announced on Thursday that Kapisha had been released <\/a>from ICE detention.<\/p>\n “To anyone who says Debora deserved to be deported because she ‘overstayed her visa’ \u2014 It can take 10 YEARS or more for some asylum cases to be adjudicated. Also, you can\u2019t renew a non-immigrant visa while your asylum is pending!” Pingree said in her social media post. “Debora followed the law to apply for asylum the legal way. Just because our immigration system is broken doesn\u2019t mean we should punish innocent people \u2014 especially those working on the front lines of our healthcare system. I will keep fighting for every Mainer wrongfully detained by DHS and working to get ICE OUT of Maine.”<\/p>\n Kapisha’s co-workers at Maine Medical Center protested outside the Portland hospital<\/a> Wednesday morning and called for her release. Fellow nurses also called on Maine Medical Center to sponsor Kapisha for permanent residency<\/a>.<\/p>\n “We were able to organize a rally for Debora within 24 hours of finding out she had been detained by ICE,” Kelli Brennan, a registered nurse at Maine Medical Center and nurse leader with the Maine State Nurses Association. “We knew we had to take action, first to stop her from being transferred out of New England while in custody, but also to demand her release. We’re incredibly proud that nurses and the community came together in Portland to advocate for her, and now we need to figure out how to stop ICE.”<\/p>\n The Maine State Nurses Association and MaineHealth both said they worked with Kapisha’s attorneys in the efforts to secure her release.<\/p>\n MaineHealth said it also requested assistance from Maine’s congressional delegation.<\/p>\n “We are grateful to Maine’s congressional delegation and to all of those who worked to ensure that our care team member could return to her family and to her colleagues at MaineHealth Maine Medical Center Portland,” the hospital’s chief operating officer, Matt Wolden, said in a statement. “We take care to ensure that everyone who works for us is legally authorized to do so and are glad that immigration authorities were able to clear up this case quickly.”<\/p>\n MaineHealth officials said all individuals who come to work at MaineHealth are thoroughly vetted to assure they are authorized to reside and work in the United States. According to those officials, MaineHealth received no notice from immigration authorities that Kapisha had been taken into custody<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"‘So thankful to be home’: Maine Medical Center nurse who was detained by ICE shares statement through union…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":990398,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[35],"tags":[397167,210,1141,1142,2741,397168,397169,16366,397170,246897,23077,397171,397172,67,132,68,10694],"class_list":["post-990397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-care","tag-debora-kapisha","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare","tag-maine","tag-maine-medical-center-nurse","tag-maine-state-nurses-association","tag-maines-total-coverage","tag-nurse-released-by-ice","tag-nurses-union","tag-portland","tag-released-from-ice-custody","tag-released-from-ice-detention","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-wmtw"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117063781182440691","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/990397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=990397"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/990397\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/990398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=990397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=990397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=990397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}